Wikinews:Australian discussion

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This is a page for discussion related to Wikinews Australia, and all things Australian
You are encouraged to add your name at List of Australian Wikireporters!

For all the latest Aussie news take a gander at the Australian Portal.

Interested in politics? Join the Australian Federal politics project.

You may also want to read the archives of this page: /archive, /archive2, /archive3

Wikipedia

Wikipedia has more about this subject:

Current events in Australia and New Zealand

Sydney Meetup, February 5th, 2006

Publicising the Aussie Portal

The advantage of the Aussie portal is that it makes Wikinews look more local, and means that the first page that a new user sees will contain more content that is relavent to them. We should be trying to publicise the portal as an entry-point to Wikinews for Australian web users. Below is a list of ways that we can further this cause. Feel free to add more. - Borofkin 06:15, 18 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Use http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Australia instead of http://en.wikinews.org when linking to Wikinews
Repost Australian articles to other websites that take contributions
Print up some flyers and leave them at your local cafe
Grafitti on the back of toilet doors
Talk about Wikinews Australia on blogs - it's especially good to post links articles that the audience of the blog may find controversial, letting them know that they can edit the article.
Tell yer friends

NICE work Borofkin--elliot_k 06:26, 18 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

iv been leaving the print version of wikinews at cafes lately. stickers are also good in places people wont mind them.--Whywhywhy 01:11, 19 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I really wish we could register the wikinews.org.au domain. - Borofkin 23:17, 30 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Aussie Portal Geeks: Request for handy link to update portal

Can someone make a link, on the front page of the Australian portal, to a basic Australian Workspace page with stuff similar to the general Wikinews Workspace page - http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Wikinews:Workspace but for aussies, if youse get my drift.--elliot_k 17:53, 19 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Have a look at Portal:Australia/Workspace... is this along the lines of what you want? - Borofkin 23:45, 19 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

You might want to move it to Wikinews:Workspace/Australia as I have done for the kiwi one (Wikinews:Workspace/New Zealand) Brian | (Talk) | ^{New Zealand Portal} 02:54, 20 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

ANZAC Day & upcoming commonwealth games

First: I have started work on a Wikinews:Story preparation/ANZAC Day, 2006 article. I invite you's to help work on this; in the comming months and I hope we can have a good featured article on the 25th of April.

Second: Are there any aussie Wikireporters who can cover the upcomming Melbourne commonwealth games? Brian | (Talk) | ^{New Zealand Portal} 02:59, 20 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Sydney Meetup

There is a Sydney Meetup proposed for the 5th of February. I reckon I'm going to turn up - it would be good to meet some other Wikinews-folk if anyone can make it. - Borofkin 03:48, 21 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Um, I should qualify that - if any Wikinews-folk are going then I'll come along as well. - Borofkin 01:38, 30 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I've spammed A-J in w:Category:Wikipedians in Sydney and w:User:Nickj says he'll do K-Z. It'll be great to get Wikimedians from the other projects along! Please come everyone! Enochlau 13:49, 1 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Audio Briefs

Is there a section on the australian site for audio briefs similar to these from the main WikiNews site. An afternoon podcast for the drive home would be realy usefull if somebody would be willing to maintain it properly. I would be interested in helping but work during the week, so would only be able to do weekend podcasts or night-time podcasts (ready for the next day's drive to work though a little outdated). Do any WikiNews regulars think this is a good idea or think it would be useful? - Aussiechris 08:04, 27 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I think it's a great idea. Anyone is welcome to start creating Australian Audio News Briefs. The Audio Wikinews News Briefs page contains information on recording briefs. If we start producing them I reckon we would just add another table to that page titled "Australian Audio News Briefs" or the like. - Borofkin 01:36, 30 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I have been having a think over this idea of Australian audio briefs. I see that main target as the pod-casting, occasional Wikinews visitor who would be reminded about Wikinews along with their other pod-casts on the way to work. They would be encouraged to incorporate Wikinews into their morning email/coffee/etc rituals. This is potentially a great way to spread the word and remind people about the Australian Portal. Morning briefs could be recorded in the afternoon/evening or early morning (say 6:00am local time). This would report late breaking news from the previous day. The problem with this is that Wikinews readers are likely to read reports a day before an audio brief is released.

The other option is to offer audio briefs for the drive home. The problem with this is that most people with Internet access at work who are likely to download audio briefs are also likely to just read the news at work too. Work policy on Internet usage is becoming more and more strict to the point that some companies may not even allow downloading audio files.

Does anybody see another audience I have overlooked which we could target with this idea. I would like to make sure that local audio briefs would be utilised. I am still interested in developing this idea but if it is not practical I would much rather spend my time working on a more usefull project. Any ideas?

Additionally I have created a draft transcript for Australian audio briefs. It is very similar to the standard template with a few localised variations thrown in. I think there is room for improvement. Have a look and edit it or leave any suggestions. --Aussiechris 11:43, 31 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I think that there are many more people listening to podcasts than just commuters. People would listen to them while at home, at work, during lunchtimes, while jogging, etc. It's hard to judge how popular something will be without just going ahead and doing it.

To be honest I'm not really sure how the current Audio Breifs work. They don't seem to have written a transcript in ages - they must just record the first paragraph of a selection of articles. - Borofkin 23:50, 31 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

After much consideration and some discussion with Borofin I have recorded this Australian Audiowikinews Weekly Summary as a draft. If the idea sits well I will endeavour to record one each week covering the previous weeks Australian wikinews. Have a listen and let me know what you think. If you have any comments or suggestions, please let me know, as I am just throwing things together at the moment and there is room for improvement. Aussiechris 07:40, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Category sections at bottom of portal

Does anyone every look at the category boxes at the bottom of the Aussie portal? I'm thinking of removing them.... - Borofkin 23:16, 30 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

This has been done. Please comment here if you don't like it. Also please feel free to suggest anything that you think should be added to the Portal. - Borofkin 23:51, 31 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

http://australia.wikinews.org

Okay, I've had some discussions on #Wikimedia-tech, and it seems the first step to getting this domain name working in the way we want it to is to create the multilingual portal, to which the domain name will ultimately link. I've made a start on this, you can view it on meta.

If you haven't been following the discussions, the purpose of this domain name is to have a nice easy to write and easy to remember web address that we can put on pamplets, graffiti on toilet doors, etc. It can't just redirect to the English language Wikinews Australia portal, because that would exclude the many people in Australia who mostly use a language other than English. It would be brilliant, for example, if we could get people generating Australian news in, say, Arabic, and then translating it to English for the English Wikinews.

Anyway, the page I've created is the same as http://www.wikinews.org, except that the links point to all the Portal:Australia or Category:Australia pages that I could find in the other Wikinews language projects. Everone is welcome to edit the page, it isn't live yet. - Borofkin 02:06, 8 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

This sounds cool, Borofkin! how can I help? - Amgine | ^{talk en.WN} 02:10, 8 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the offer Amgine. The folks on #wikitech say that the next step is to convince a developer to create the domain (or redirection, or whatever it is). I'm not sure if the www.wikinews.org page on meta is actually the live page or not. I suppose if you know a developer who could clarify and fasttrack the whole process it would be handy. I'm still not 100% sure what it is that I'm reqeusting. The Wikimedia world is a complicted one. - Borofkin 02:16, 8 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Wikinews Australia logo

The Wikinews Portal uses the standard Wikinews logo. When the Wikinews Australia Portal is up we may want to use a logo that includes the name "Wikinews Australia", to give it a more localised feel. If anyone is good at graphics stuff, they are welcome to knock up a logo and post it here. - Borofkin 02:55, 8 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I have been playing around with an Australian portal logo. Is this the sort of thing you had in mind? I chose the red because its similar to the wikinews print edition logo. I dont have a copy of the wikimedia font (GillSans) to do the "Australia" text with, but am sure I could track it down. If it comes to that. If you dont think its a good idea to edit the rest of the world out of the logo let me know and I will have a bit more of a tinker. Please leave any feedback or other logo ideas. Aussiechris 14:23, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Yep, that's exactly what I had in mind. Thanks for doing that... I've added it to the australia.wikinews.org template page, and also to the top of this page. Of course, anyone is able to contribute alternatives... if we have a couple of different logos we may want to have a vote. - Borofkin 05:19, 13 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I like it, so do you think you could do one for the New Zealand Portal :) Brian | (Talk) | ^{New Zealand Portal} 05:23, 13 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Wikinews mentioned in news.com.au article

Capitol Hill caught wiki-cheating - February 10. Anyone know if it has appeared in any of the print editions? - Borofkin 03:41, 10 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Aussie IRC channel

There is an Aussie Wikimedia IRC channel starting up: irc://irc.freenode.net/wikimedia-au - Borofkin 04:26, 10 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Bali Nine Story Preparation

The two alleged ringleaders are being sentenced today. I've started this story: Wikinews:Story preparation/Bali Nine ringleaders sentenced to death. If they don't get death we'll rewrite before moving it to the main namespace. Any help appreciated. - Borofkin 23:09, 13 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Wikimedia Australia IRC meeting

This message was posted on the w:Wikipedia:Australian Wikipedians' notice board. Post followups there.

As mentioned above, the proposed Wikimedia Australia now has an IRC channel, #wikimedia-au. It would be good to have a meeting sometime soon of Wikimedians interested in setting up the chapter, perhaps this Sunday evening? Logs will be posted for those who can't or don't use IRC. I think some real time discussion would be very useful. Please indicate below whether this time is good for you.

An Australian Wikimedia chapter (Wikimedia Australia) will be very useful to us here at Wikinews, not least because it will allow us to register www.wikinews.org.au. - Borofkin 23:46, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Todays News Template

The Australian Wikinews Portal has more Australian news:

I am always getting stuck in a story unable to get back to the australian wikinews portal without resorting to bookmarks or going to front page and onto the australian category. Plus we get todays news. I was thinking of putting this template in the article creation template unless i get any againsts( its all automated )(a no news day on the left) --Whywhywhy 10:56, 22 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I've been thinking about doing this for a while - I wasn't sure about it because it sort of tags articles as "ours" when they are really part of the Wiki as a whole. However, I reckon it's a worth giving a go to see how it goes, and I think the New Zealand portal has been doing something similar without any problems, so ahead and start adding the template to articles if you want. - Borofkin 23:21, 22 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Yes NZ has been using something similar for a while (see Template:New Zealand) Brian | (Talk) | ^{New Zealand Portal} 23:36, 22 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Australian Federal politics project

Announcing the Australian Federal politics project. We are already producing excellent articles on happenings in the political world at Federal level. I've created this project page to try and organise those activities, and to focus our work on using original source material rather than other news agencies. Have a read, and if you are interested in helping out, add your name to the list of participants. All comments welcome. - Borofkin 01:41, 27 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Australian parliament debates Millennium Development Goals

I've created the article Australian parliament debates Millennium Development Goals, based on Hansards. The debate involved seven speeches, which can be viewed here, titled "Gender Equality". If you're looking for something to do, you can read one of the speeches and provide a paragraph summary in the article. The idea is that the article will become a neutral review of the debate. - Borofkin 23:33, 28 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Wikinews Australia Statistics

Here is a count of published articles in Category:Australia, by month, for the past three months:

Wikinews Australia Articles per month
Month	No. of Articles	Notes
December, 2005	62
January, 2006	55
February, 20056	47	Only 28 days

In total there are 360 pages in Category:Australia. - Borofkin 01:48, 3 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Wikinews Australia Publicity Campaign

Okay, we have a portal page and we have a logo. I think it's time to take Wikinews Australia to the people. I was hoping to wait until we had a pretty domain name, but I don't think that will be happening for a while. So, we need suggestions for how we can bring non-Wiki people into the project. The people I think we should target are those too busy making the news to be sitting at their computer writing it: members of community groups, activists, criminals, members of political parties, whistleblowers, the homeless, the disgruntled, etc etc. Does anyone have any ideas for how we can make contact with such people and convince them that they should spend large amounts of their spare time contributing to Wikinews? All I can think of is an A5 size pamphlet with a catchy title, a logo, some information, and the URL (http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Australia). We can hand it out at protests, stick it up on noticeboards, letterbox, etc. If someone is feeling creative they are welcome to knock one up now. Does anyone have any other ideas? - Borofkin 06:10, 6 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Ah yeah! we rock. Happy to help. Will push the notion across the Oceania IMC networks...--elliot_k 07:44, 6 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Another good idea could be to get WN into the university community - journo students in particular may find it useful. Unfortunately the idea of citizen journalism hasn't really caught on in Australia. I think we should try and get new people to contribute but also expand our networks so to speak. It would be great if we could get some sources out there that will contact us when things break. Also with the logo, does it have foundation approval? - Cartman02au (Talk)(AU Portal) 10:39, 6 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Have you tried simpply emailing some journalism professors and asking what they suggest? I'd guess the best solution is to print up nice pretty glossy posters for posting in journalism departments, and send them to some journalism professors who seem interested. Nyarlathotep 10:50, 6 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

All great ideas. I've thought about emailing journalism departments. I have dreams of a lecturer incorporating Wikinews into a course, so 300 students have a weekly assignment to write one wikinews article and get it published. - Borofkin 23:04, 6 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I've uploaded a pamphlet. Let me know what you think, and feel free to create/modify it and upload a different version - I envisage a bunch of different pamphlets for different occasions and target audiences. - Borofkin 23:46, 6 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Not a bad pamphlet well targeted towards a political audience. The only potential hurdle could be whether or not the foundation have Wikinews and the logo trademarked (I know that the official Wikimedia one is and to modify it requires a licence from the foundation board) -Cartman02au (Talk)(AU Portal) 00:26, 7 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Not bad at all, but we should also be doing pamphlets for the U.S. and U.K. [1] :) As for lecturers incorporating, I'm not exactly sure that is likely, we might have to grant them some sort of temporary authority over their students. But, in theory, we could allow course sub-projects where a lecturer was granted ultimate control over the publication of their students work (subject to the majority of the community trusting the lecturer). I think anyone with a PhD in journalism will be more than capable of reaching the foundations NPOV guidlines. However, people might not want to put up with such beurocratic BS as getting the comunities approval, so I think the much more likely route is simply to have it posted in departments where lots of people see it. Nyarlathotep 23:53, 6 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

BTW: Have you's seen Image:Wikiletter.pdf? Brian | (Talk) | ^{New Zealand Portal} 23:55, 6 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Nice letter there - Cartman02au (Talk)(AU Portal) 00:26, 7 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I just looked up and noticed that meta states that Wikinews is trademarked. To distribute things with "Wikinews Australia" on them I'd say we need approval from the board or LegalCom. I will look into it, but I'd assume it is similar to how it works for chapters - Cartman02au (Talk)(AU Portal) 00:30, 7 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Oh the pain! Surely the Foundation gives authorisation in advance for project contributors, acting in good faith, to use their logo's and trademarks in activities that clearly support the goals of the Foundation? Surely we don't need to get a little printed handout approved by the board. - Borofkin 00:53, 7 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I do not know, I know in the case of chapters they have a trademark agreement with the foundation to use the logo for certain uses, modify it in certain ways, etc. I will see what I can find - Cartman02au (Talk)(AU Portal) 02:19, 7 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I think word of mouth is the only way wikinews will spread. I can think of manyy a situation where I have said: "if you think its crap, why dont you write your own article on wikinews".. recommendation and SPIFFY new wikinews australia t-shirts, and media passes with my name/photo wikinews logo on it. On another note, any wiki-newsie (whom is technically a volunteer of wikinews) should consider becoming an accociate member of the w:Media,_Entertainment_and_Arts_Alliance, which gives you endorsement and some notion of formal credibility as a journalist.. --Goldiemicky 13:30, 7 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

How much does the EAA membership cost? - Cartman02au (Talk)(AU Portal) 21:06, 7 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

australia.wikinews.org

Just a question, what happened to australia.wikinews.org ? Bawolff ☺☻ 23:41, 6 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The Wikimedia Tech's said that country subdomains had never been done before, and so it would need board approval (at least) before they could do it. I haven't attempted to go down that path (yet). I'm hoping that Wikimedia Australia gets off the ground sooner rather than later, so we can register www.wikinews.org.au. - Borofkin 23:46, 6 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I want to see WMA get off the ground soon, but at the same time want to wait until the new "committee structure" of the foundation is in place as there seems to be issues with approval of chapters at present - Cartman02au (Talk)(AU Portal) 00:30, 7 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I'm also looking forward to WMA. If only a government worked like a wiki. - Borofkin 00:49, 7 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

It does- it's called Democracy. -[User:Ronan.evans|Ronan.evans]] 07:10, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

Quite right, but unfortunately a government beauracracy is most certainly un-wiki-like. On a wiki creating an entity called "Wikimedia Australia" takes about two seconds - it's as simple as creating a page. But to create such an entity in the real world, and have it recognised by the government, takes months and money. - Borofkin 07:13, 20 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

"cricket? what cricket?"

what? nobody in australia watches cricket these days? :_) Doldrums 13:29, 13 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Have you had your eye's closed for past 4 month or do you come from Tasmainia? lol Ronan.evans 07:09, 20 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Two state elections held today

We have two state elections being held today, one in Tasmania and one in South Australia. It would be interesting to focus on these.

Lyellins Personal Challenge

Check out User:Lyellin/Personal_Challenge for an informal article-writing challenge. I've been pretty slack recently, so I'm going to attempt to write one article each weekday. I've made a rather depressing start with Great Grand-daughter of Albert Namatjira found raped, murdered. - Borofkin 04:36, 3 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Statistics for Wikinews Australia

Here are the latest article statistics, updated for March:

Wikinews Australia Articles per month
Month	No. of Articles	Notes
December, 2005	62
January, 2006	55
February, 2006	47	Only 28 days
March, 2006	57

Congratulations to all the regular article-writerers, amongst which I cannot count myself. I'm going to endeavour to write more this month - I think our target should be 60 articles, or two a day. - Borofkin 06:52, 3 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

ANZAC Day

ANZAC day is on Tuesday. I have done some work on a story: Wikinews:Story preparation/ANZAC Day, 2006. I invite you's to help work on this; and I hope we can have a good detailed on the 25th of April.

I hope to get a couple of photos in NZ, will any one be able to get some photos at an Aussie event? Brian | (Talk) | ^{New Zealand Portal} 01:07, 23 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Statistics

Wikinews Australia Articles per month
Month	No. of Articles	Notes
December, 2005	62
January, 2006	55
February, 2006	47	Only 28 days
March, 2006	57
April, 2006	22
May, 2006	65

There are many people involved in making Wikinews Australia function, however I would like to especially thank Cartman02au, Elliot_K and Dysprosia, who have written the bulk of our articles. Without article content Wikinews would be nothing more than an idea. Thanks to all! - Borofkin 01:11, 21 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

templates

why do u aussies need Template: Australia new page as well as Template:Australia/New page? Doldrums 09:15, 21 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

WikiBureau?

Hi Bruces

I wondered where I can find a general discussion on the phenomenon WikiBureau. I was thinking of starting a WB on Topics like Health and Science and Techno instead of the geographic WB that are around now, but wanted some feedback first.

--Steven Fruitsmaak (Talk) 11:58, 25 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

more categories

Category:Australasia has survived from the hoary old days of the beginnings of wikinews. any thoughts on what to do about it are welcome here. Doldrums 14:36, 2 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

G20 in Melbourne

Is there anyone interested in covering the protests this weekend?? I might go and photograph, but it would be cool if there was someone to work with. Please email me or write a message on my talk page if so. Thanks --w:User:pfctdayelise 13:45, 15 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Any Aussies left

A year ago, the aussies had the most active portal, where have you's all gone, Kiwis are beating (as with everything) your article count now :) Brian | (Talk) | ^{New Zealand Portal} 03:41, 6 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Podcast

A new podcast featuring Australian, New Zealand, and possibly Oceania news: http://www.bitshuffle.org/wikicast/Southern_Star. --Nzgabriel | Talk 08:03, 1 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Template:Australian news

does it really need a map showing the location of Australia, and a caption for the map saying "Location of Australia"? if ppl have no problem, i plan to remove the image in a couple of days. — Doldrums(talk) 12:02, 8 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Apology to Stolen Generations

I've started a prepared article: Portal:Prepared_stories/Australian_parliament_apologises_to_the_Stolen_Generations. If anyone is going to watch the telecast on one of the public screens you should take some photos and do some original reporting. We need things like: location, time rally started, estimate of crowd size, quotes from any speeches made, quotes from regular participants, photos, descriptions of any interesting events, and any other observations. - Borofkin 23:43, 11 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]